Glow
by Thorn In Your Side
Summary: Little-boy love is perhaps the cleanest pain a guy can ever know. Sai with his broken child never had that privilege, but touched grace in the feelings blond Naruto gave him...at least until the hormones kicked in. Oops.


**Glow**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. **

**A/N: Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei taught me what 'yaoi' is an acronym for. I feel so disillusioned. **

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x**

Sai was smiling.

Before you ask why, can I ask a better question? Why _**not**_?

Watching a boy as attractive as Naruto bathe under a waterfall would make you smile too. Not to say that Sai was a voyeur; Naruto knew he was there. Hell, Sai was bathing too. And that's another thing—how pleasant it was to be pounded by the gushing falls' water after a day of sparring practice? No, Sai's smile was definitely justified. He'd been training hard and getting strong, he'd managed to have several lengthy conversations with Sakura sans slaps for offending her sensibilities and best of all, he was watching Naruto bathe, naked.

Um. Perhaps there _**was **_a voyeuristic streak to him. But you can forgive that, yes? Please do.

"Hey, asshole. Stop staring at my dick."

"Heavens, nubbin, is _**that **_what it is? I was wondering why you'd put a knob of clay between your legs."

A Naruto of earlier days might've leapt at Sai's throat, but this was suave, collected Naruto that had saved Konohagakure from Pein and misery. This was the hero that took bad jokes in stride and for that I'm grateful.

(Pein and misery, really? The things I do for your entertainment are both numerous and nonsensical.)

"Sai, you're such a turd."

The artist poured liquid soap into his hands and lathered his shoulders, stepping away from the waterfall into the calmer pool it made. His dark eyes gamboled over Naruto's tan, rippling back and slipped down to the crevice of the buttocks the blond was so generously displaying as he bent over to wash between his toes.

(Wow! Such dedication to cleanliness—remember kids! Real ninjas wash behind their ears!)

A splash enticed Naruto to turn, and a few billowing drops of blood inked the place where Sai had collapsed into the water. The jinchuuriki swore as he waded over to tug the brunet up by the hair and slap him around a bit.

"Pale, stupid pervert! How did you get a nosebleed!"

Sai caught his wrists and allowed their lips to collide. Suave, collected Naruto went to hell; the raging one jerked away from Sai.

"The hell is wrong with you, bastard? More importantly, why is it always guys that want to kiss me!"

Sai stood up, a furry feeling burrowing through his chest. "That one woman wanted to kiss you too," he reminded Naruto, "The redheaded one from the Sora incident."

"She wanted to _**kill **_me with her kiss, Sai, so I don't think that counts." Naruto shook the water out of his hair and lunged for the bank to get into some clothes. "And if you ever do that again I swear I'll fuck up you real bad! Pervert."

"You, fuck me? Nubbin, aren't you overestimating the power of you teeny, tiny—"

"Sai! Shut the fuck up."

The brunet grinned a false grin before heading back to his bath. Left by himself he was able to explore that feeling in his chest. It was…bright. It was…poke-y. Like lighting across midnight skies, or naked trees at sunrise. Sai had been suffering this feeling for a while now, and each of the professionals he'd consulted had offered a different opinion.

"Heartburn," Chouji had diagnosed when Sai tried to describe it fro him. Shikamaru had lobbed a bag of chips at his friend for that.

"It sounds like a crush," the smart Nara had said, "You're our age, right? Then this feeling is probably accompanied by lurches in your lower abdomen?"

Not at first. At first it had been a floating sensation of devastating stability whenever Naruto was around. A sense of deep…was it awe? For that soft buttery hair. For that guileless grin.

Kakashi was quite succinct. "You seem to really admire him. If it was a crush you'd have all sorts of filthy ideas about cornering him in empty rooms…"

Ahem, and he'd offered to lend Sai _Icha, Icha Paradise _to understand the details. The ANBU Root rat had perused it disinterestedly. So mundanely heterosexual…

Everything about Naruto made him smile these days. His rakish voice, his fascination for ramen. It was so weird—Sai had thought of these traits as faults when they'd met. Why did they appear so pleasing now?

Sakura was the one who solved it in the end.

"Sai, have you ever had this feeling before in your life?"

Negative.

"Is it some sort of disease?" he'd wanted to know. The kunoichi laughed in his face.

"Clueless Sai, you're kinda cute when you're stupid."

The books called it an insult but Sai's experience taught him that Sakura's tone couldn't get much fonder than that.

She called it accelerated development of the male psyche.

Apparently, little-boy love was the cleanest pain most men ever knew. The unconditional, overflowing love for a fellow human being for unspecified reasons paved the way for a more mature affection. With a pit stop in Horny Dogsville. Sai with his broken childhood had never known this perfect agony and had touched grace in the feelings the blond gave him. Briefly.

"Hormones are a bitch, Sai. Have you ever been hard?"

Ever since Kakashi brought him a copy of _Icha, Icha Yaoi, _Sai had these dreams he couldn't really remember. There was the impression of urgency and something solid gold before he woke up hot, with a painful boner he rid himself of with icy early morning showers.

"That's not healthy." Sakura was entirely too unabashed about it, "Jerk it off, it'll be better that way."

In the end, it was up to Sai. In the end, the ultimate question was: did he want to do something about blond Naruto and his sad genitalia?

"Yes, please."

Sakura was a good friend. She'd arrange for it.

000

Naruto was aggravated in his own right.

He worked tirelessly every day to stop himself from the weird thoughts Sai inspired in him (_nice tush_ was too common. _Soft lips _was scarier. _I want to—_inevitably ended in a session of self-punishment that would've impressed both Sasuke and Lee) but when the brunet did something like kissing him in the middle of a waterfall, he found it too hard. He found himself getting hard.

Un-fucking-fair.

As a friend he loved Sai. The guy was great. Random and hilarious in a totally rude way. Like Chaucer. He was loyal, too—he'd stuck by Naruto through his whole get-Sasuke-back-_**naow**_ mania. Naruto should be happy to have such an awesome friend and a friend _**only. **_What was all this mucking about with wet dreams and hungry desires and the growing need to just kiss back one day and to _**hell **_with public opinion—

Uh. Naruto admitted nothing.

The sulk he was in wore off. His thoughts turned to Sai with a more sympathetic stance. A…a friendly stance. Friends shouldn't fight. Friends should make up. He should forgive Sai for the stupid kiss and hope he did it again.

…

Naruto still admits to nothing.

000

Things culminated in a way so as to bring the two to the bathhouses at the same time. They undressed in silence: Naruto supposedly in a pissed-off funk and Sai struggling to think of a joke about his penis when it made him _**so happy **_to look at it. A towel wrapped round his hips, the blond turned to the brunet.

"Come take a steam with me. Sakura-chan says I should make up and try to get along with you."

"Even if it is like trying to get along with a porcupine in your bed?"

"Just get in the sauna, Sai!"

Minutes skipped gaily by.

"Hey, Sai." Naruto eyes were closed, his arms on the back of the sauna bench. The steam moistened his hair but couldn't make it droop; instead of it's normal flaxen bounciness it was dark and (it seemed to Sai) inviting. "How'd you hear about me telling Kiba getting along with you is…is like that?"

Sai closed his eyes too. "We live in a fairly small village, Naruto, and you told the guy with the loudest mouth."

"Shit. Well, sorry. I only meant it at the moment. It's Sasuke that's more like a porcupine."

"What animal avatar do I get?"

"Pig pervert."

Hmm. It certainly suited him. Sai squirmed. The sauna reminded him of the dreams he had at night, with its steamy heat. Plus he'd just recognized the solid gold something—Naruto. Sai's crotch warmed up to the picture of the blond, along with his heart. He appreciated the difference in heat—his cock was more on fire; his heart filling up with light.

Christ, what the hell.

"You dead, shithead?"

"No." Sai threw a few dippers of water on the hot rocks; steam thickened until he couldn't see Naruto's face. "I'm okay, nubbin."

"Well fuckin' reply when I insult you, asswipe."

"Okay, two-inch wonder."

The blond let out a snort of secure laughter, and Sai marveled at the change. He wondered if he preferred having Naruto throw himself at him in anger so that their bodies touched, or being able to converse with him properly.

"Hey, Sai. Tell me more about that dream you had." Shit, you mean the one where you were moaning for his boner? "The one you and your brother shared." Oh, right. Never mind.

"What's there to tell, nubbin? He and I wanted to live together. He died."

There was a sliding sound of skin against wood. Naruto loomed out of the mist and sat next to Sai, throwing an arm around his shoulder.

Shit.

Shit!

Sai was warm for this guy's form (hey now is so not the time to be picky with your words) and this guy was just plain warm. Naruto's skin stuck to Sai's and the brunet started to count down to the second when his self-control shattered in the face of Naruto's formidable allure.

"You should paint a new dream, Sai."

Sai's mouth went dry.

"Put me in it. I'll make it come true."

Baby, he dreams of you every night. You wanna start working on those?

"I don't know if I sound conceited…but Sai, you're my (really annoying) friend and I'd work hard to make you happy."

Because really, what else did Naruto ever do except make his friends happy? He'd spent the last half dozen years on Sasuke. Evidently, it was Sai's turn.

The countdown ended. Sai's warm heart went cold with longing and he pushed Naruto flat down on the bench, kissing him like the world would end, as though this was the last kiss of creation. His hands tied down Naruto's shoulders and his back took Naruto's thumping hands like blessed rain but his lips would not leave the blond's. All the devotion of puppy love and all the desire of horny dogs poured out of Sai and into Naruto whose hands fell tiredly to his side. Sai licked his mouth, wanting more, but Naruto's eyes caught his.

And they were pissed.

"Why the fuck do you do this, Sai? How come every time I let myself be normal around you, you do something so abnormal? How the hell am I supposed to fight this?"

An apologetic forehead dropped to his chin. Sai said, "Sorry. You make me…hot. Really, really hot."

Naruto spat Sai's hair out of his mouth before replying, "Messed up. You're so messed up."

Hmm. Well that suited him too, but why were Naruto's hands on this messed up guy's shoulders? Sai raised his head. Naruto's eyes were the color of afternoon sky, and they weren't really that pissed.

"Do I seriously do that to you, or are you trying to be funny?"

"Nubbin, I've never been less inclined to laugh at a situation."

And the beautiful blue eyes beckoned him in. "Sweet. Hey, Sai? Kiss me again, okay?"

Sai's hands fell to Naruto's hips to see if he was for real, and Naruto's eyes replied that yes, yes he was. His hands trawled lower in a tentative are you sure? and Naruto's answer was a hitch in his breath that moaned oh god yes, and touch me there again.

Little boy love was all well and fine, but this wasn't the age for it. Sai smiled.

_Touch you here?_

Naruto closed his eyes.

_Yes. _

**x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x**

**I love the way I described that kiss. **


End file.
